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So the good news is that I managed to get the new engine started today. She fired right up after a crank or two and ran great!! First time in 2 years...

Then, I noticed the alternator light was on -RED. Then I noticed a bunch of smoke from the engine bay. Turned her off and...The red wire from the starter to the alternator was red hot and burning...it burnt all the way to the alternator from the starter.......

The battery was also making strange noises....and was very warm

When I got the engine the harness was already connected. I connected the longer end to the starter. and also plugged it in to the relay board

Clay wrote;Hiya... Glad you are here. One thing to check on the electrical stuff... make sure the stud on the back of the alt for the positive battery wire doesn't hit the cover. It happens all the time with rebuilt alternators. Causes one hell of a short. I always put the wire on, and take a dremel and cut the remainder of the stud off. Then I make sure the boot is over the stud.

Yes, it was quite a scare and I was ready to pull the fire extinguisher but it went out itself...phew. I agree its a short. Everything looks good at the starter - so it must be at the alternator end. I'll have to remove the alternator and see if its visible. The wire itself was in excellent shape.

Clay wrote;Hiya... Glad you are here. One thing to check on the electrical stuff... make sure the stud on the back of the alt for the positive battery wire doesn't hit the cover. It happens all the time with rebuilt alternators. Causes one hell of a short. I always put the wire on, and take a dremel and cut the remainder of the stud off. Then I make sure the boot is over the stud.

Clay/Doug - yes it was. I suspect thats what it is. I'll pull the alternator and take a look. I ordered a new harness from Jeff.

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I've been trying to follow this build and lost track of where you were with it... Sorry to hear about the trouble, but excited to see it come together. I'm sure you'll get this fixed up and on the road soon. I look forward to seeing the progress here and hopefully seeing it in person one day!

Clay wrote;Hiya... Glad you are here. One thing to check on the electrical stuff... make sure the stud on the back of the alt for the positive battery wire doesn't hit the cover. It happens all the time with rebuilt alternators. Causes one hell of a short. I always put the wire on, and take a dremel and cut the remainder of the stud off. Then I make sure the boot is over the stud.

As you can see, there was a short between the SIDE of the nut and the alternator cover plate. See straight edge of cover plate. The cover plate then also shorted against the engine itself.

What I can't figure out is why?

One option is that it looks like the nut was too wide? It doesn't look too long and it shorted to the side , not the top.

The second option is that perhaps the cover was put on incorrectly? You can see that the inside of the cover is mostly rounded - but then has a square side. Its the square side that shorted. But the cover has to point in the right direction for the rubber sleeve (for cooling) to attach to. So it seems it can only go on one way?

Not sure how to solve this…Ideas? This was all assembled when the engine was delivered.

We take our starters and alternators to a local battery shop. They test for free and rebuild for $75-100 depending on what’s needed. Usually takes a day or 2. Ask around to find a local place that can do the same.

So it looks like the post was not too high - rather the washer on the post B+ underneath the Nut was too wide. Thus it was hitting the side of the cover. The answer from another readers experience is to trim the edge of the washer. What a lot of work for a small thing that almost turned into disaster.

btw, what I saw, but failed to appreciate, is that when I had hooked up the battery the Alternator light on the dash stayed on. It stayed on after starting up the car also. This should have been an indication that something was wrong.....